Bookmarkable URLPerhaps exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1859. The scene appears to be set in an orphanage, the children being orphaned sisters. Religion was the subject of much political controversy in France in the nineteenth century between the Right, generally supportive of the traditional Catholic faith, and the Left, generally supportive of secular policies. Scenes like this would therefore be regarded by many contemporaries as overt political statements (see also Scheffer, 'The Sister of Mercy', P616)..